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Writer's pictureLiz Romero

How to Avoid Long-Term Vacancies in Your Rental Property

A vacant rental property doesn’t make an owner any money, and that’s why you want to keep your rental home occupied with a good tenant who pays on time and takes care of the home. Vacancies are expensive in the long term as well; your ROI suffers and you never have a chance to earn back the money you’ve lost.

It’s critical to place and keep a good tenant quickly. Here are some ideas on how to avoid long vacancy periods with your rental home.


Provide an Exceptional Property

Make sure you’re offering a property that tenants will want to rent. When you maintain the home properly, you have a better chance of attracting best tenants quickly. You’ll also protect the condition of your home and increase its value. The homes that are on the market the longest are often older, run-down, and lacking curb appeal. If you can show tenants that you care about your property, you won’t have to worry about a long vacancy period. You’ll have plenty of renters who want to live there. When your tenants report that something is broken, try to fix the problem as soon as possible.


Deferred maintenance only creates higher expenses and longer vacancy periods.


Keep your Property Competitively Priced

Long vacancy periods are often due to rental prices being too high. You need to price your home competitively and aggressively. Take a look at your local market and measure what homes similar to yours are renting for in the immediate area. You want to earn as much as you can on your home, but overpricing the property will only create longer vacancies, and you’ll end up losing money instead of maximizing what you earn.


When you look at what homes are renting for on Craigslist, Zillow, or any of the other popular rental sites, you’ll see how long those homes have been on the market. If a property is vacant for more than 30 days, there’s a good chance it’s overpriced.


Retain the Tenants you Have

Retain the Tenants you have keeping your current tenants in place is a great way to avoid vacancy. When you’re qualifying tenants, look for ones with a record of longer tenancies. When you decide to increase the rent, make sure it’s fair and aligned with the market. If there’s no basis for raising the rent, don’t do it. At Overland Management, we keep comps on how the local market is performing, and we utilize the data we gather to help our clients price their homes and decide on rental increases.


To avoid vacancy, we recommend you make the rental process a pleasant one for your tenants. Be responsive, be communicative, and give them a reason to renew their leases.


We take lease renewals seriously, and we work hard to retain our best tenants. This is a lot cheaper for our owners than constant turnovers and long vacancy periods.


We don’t like high vacancy rates, and we know that smart investors and landlords don’t like them either. Let’s work on keeping your home occupied. Contact Overland Management! We can help you lease your home quickly and take care of all your property management needs.


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